Twins reportedly offered Lance Lynn two years and $20 million, which is a lowball

Lynn is worth far more than that, in terms of past and expected future performance

The free agent market this offseason has been relatively terrible for the players and pretty great for the people who think the players make too much money. It's starting to get a bit ridiculous when it comes to an industry making well over $10 billion a year. A few days ago, we learned of Neil Walker getting a minor-league offer from the Royals and now there's this, courtesy of TwinCities.com: 

[The Twins] recently offered a two-year, $20 million contract to free agent right-hander Lance Lynn, according to a person with direct knowledge.  

Man, that's an amazing lowball offer, even considering what we've seen this offseason. It's especially head-scratching that the Twins thought they had a realistic chance to sign Yu Darvish. Lynn is no Darvish, I'm just saying that they obviously have the financial wherewithal to go higher in the hopes of landing Lynn. 

Lynn, 30, missed all of 2016 after having Tommy John surgery, but he's 72-47 with a 3.38 ERA (114 ERA+) in his career. In his past three seasons, he pitched to a 3.06 ERA (129 ERA+) and put together a 3.43 ERA (124 ERA+) last season in his first year back from TJ. 

While Lynn isn't an ace, he's a mid-rotation workhorse. The going rate for those guys once they hit free agency has long been significantly more than two years and $20 million. Hell, Tyler Chatwood got three years and $38 million earlier this offseason from the Cubs. 

Let's go back a few years, though. Keep in mind the numbers I just posted on Lynn. Let's call this next guy Pitcher B for now. He was 47-61 with a 4.09 ERA (96 ERA+) in his career. He was coming off a season in which he led the majors in hits and earned runs allowed while leading his league in home runs allowed. Sure, there were always underlying reasons to love this guy (strikeout rate, stuff and FIP generally had people thinking he'd eventually bust through), but the run prevention was just not consistently there. 

The man was Jeff Samardzija and he got five-year, $90 million deal from the Giants heading into 2016 at roughly the same age Lynn is now. 

Obviously, the market is softening, but surely someone could afford to give Lynn something like four years and $60 million -- just to throw out some figures -- right? He's easily worth that. 

For the sake of your fan base, someone step up and start offering good players like Lynn better deals and improve the on-field product. No, two years and $20 million isn't good enough. Not for Lance Lynn. There aren't more than a handful of teams, if that, who have a rotation full of pitchers better than Lynn.